I mentioned last time that this isn’t a show that you have to work hard to enjoy – and I think that’s true – but it’s also definitely a show that you want to pay close attention to. The devil – and the hilarity – is in the details, and they fly pretty fast and furious. For example, take my favorite part of the episode – the pitched battle between the Color Rangers and the Demon Lord’s minions. As far as I can see, the attacks were:

– Blue: Looking cool
– Red: “Bus gas explosion!”
– Black: Composing haiku
– White: Tongue twisters
– Yellow: “The chief of the Tokyo Special Patent Approval Office suddenly takes vacation and rejects all applications!” This is my favorite, as it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

My close second choice for favorite sequence would be the Prince – as the Princess – in cosplay mode as the Demon Lord reads up about what to do on their wedding night.

Ever clearer as this series progresses is just what a total dick Prince Baka is. But he’s no bigger a troll than the mangaka, Yoshihiro Togashi, because he does a masterful job pulling the rug out from under the audience (or reader, as the case may be) time after time. There were so many red herrings in this arc that it could have stocked a fish market for a week. The “girl you like” passwords? Fake-out. The teacher? Nothing to do with the plot whatsoever, really – though I suppose we can’t totally ignore the possibility that she shows up later to take the Prince out and rescue the kids – who, as we leave them apparently for good, are back on the RPG planet Calvary in their swim trunks with a giant Prince Baka as the Demon Lord to menace them. And the cute Little Demon Lord who fell off the cover of “Le Petit Prince”? Well, he could be dead – or maybe he never existed in the first place, and was just part of the Prince’s troll of the kids.

That’s part of the fun here, I guess – hating the Prince but admiring his cajones at the same time. But the hard truth is that if you take this series even a tiny bit seriously – which I suppose is a bad idea – it’s impossible to ignore the fact that he’s not just mischievous, he’s a very evil person. Just ask the Color Rangers, or Craft, or any of the other poor saps he’s going to troll over the next six episodes. Me, I’m rooting for sexy Tachibana-sensei to go after the kids and off Prince Baka once and for all – that would be a helluva ending.